elektroakust.;59526 wrote:

Not sure if anyone here wants it to be more mainstream.
But it would for sure be good to have things back on a little more 'healthy' underground level.

Thanks for the reply, but I guess I'm still not sure why. Is the motivation: music sales, dj bookings, historic preservation, exposing people to something unknown, or are we talking about just being able to go out and have the option of hearing some electro at a club?

I guess what I'm trying to get at is that if you want to have some type of change I think you need to know what the goals and motivations are otherwise everyone will be uninterested or pushing a different agendas.

Tech44;59531 wrote:

Is the motivation: music sales, dj bookings, historic preservation, exposing people to something unknown, or are we talking about just being able to go out and have the option of hearing some electro at a club?

All of that.
But unfortunately there is no easy solution to the whole lot of problems involved
...other than to motivate people to get active, to support and to spread the word.

First of all, I don't think it is about education. Techno became big without anyone knowing its origins, its name. It just worked, and was there at the right time in the right place. Sometimes its that simple.

Secondly: genre names always have been rather undefined, different people having different opinions what a certain genre sounds like. Let's take tech-house. You ask ten different people what tech-house is, and you'll get ten different answers. If electro would become more popular and the name "electro" would be associated with another sound, people would give the true "electro" just another name. Happened before. I for example call our sound "technobreaks", because I see much more connections to these two genres than to electrofunk or oldskool hiphop.

Thirdly: What one would need is scene setters, big players in the electronic music bizz turning towards the sound again. I think genres that break through just by themselves (DubStep e.g.) are a rarity these days. Just Dave Clarke is not enough. You'd need Sven Väth playing Electro again, Carl Cox, etc. pp.. But that would also mean, that the genre would be taken out of our hands, and I doubt that too many people here would be happy about that.

drschmidt;59544 wrote:

First of all, I don't think it is about education. Techno became big without anyone knowing its origins, its name. It just worked, and was there at the right time in the right place. Sometimes its that simple.

Secondly: genre names always have been rather undefined, different people having different opinions what a certain genre sounds like. Let's take tech-house. You ask ten different people what tech-house is, and you'll get ten different answers. If electro would become more popular and the name "electro" would be associated with another sound, people would give the true "electro" just another name. Happened before. I for example call our sound "technobreaks", because I see much more connections to these two genres than to electrofunk or oldskool hiphop.

Thirdly: What one would need is scene setters, big players in the electronic music bizz turning towards the sound again. I think genres that break through just by themselves (DubStep e.g.) are a rarity these days. Just Dave Clarke is not enough. You'd need Sven Väth playing Electro again, Carl Cox, etc. pp.. But that would also mean, that the genre would be taken out of our hands, and I doubt that too many people here would be happy about that.

diplomat;59274 wrote:

I think that the demise of vinyl coupled with the influx of digital releases has played it’s part in the overall quality of the genre today.

To issue a vinyl release costs a lot of money, and therefore you would want the quality of the tracks you were releasing to be high due to the financial risk involved. A digital release costs next to nothing and there is little financial risk involved so the quality is sometimes lacking.
There are so many digital releases that the market gets saturated and it’s often hard to pick out the quality tracks due to the quantity that are released.

I can’t afford to keep losing money on vinyl releases hence the one per year we try to manage!

Quite ironic really that technology has damaged a music created with technology! Not just electro though - I'm sure the same can be said for all electronic genres.

i 100% agree with that. hard to pick out some good tunes in that lot of garbage.
a lot of the new stuff i heard is not unique and the quality of the tunes not good....maybe because its too easy to release a tune today...

its not like in the 90's or early 00's...it's hard to find a tune today like Aux 88-Electro Techno or A1 People-Do It or Newcleus-Destination Earth (Sbassship remix)...tunes you dont hear for 5 or 6 years, but if you hear them again, you exactly know witch artist and Track Title....but if you listen to some of these new digital releases..if you ask me 1 week later i dont remember a artist name or track title, as a lot of this stuff just dont have something special.
its still the vinyl releases and the quality tunes who keeps this music alive imo..like electro soul satisfaction, global sourveyor, CBR Underground electro...good music on black gold with a nice label or cover design.

i will add a few points:
today its very easy to get all the songs...the classics (even the rare ones) and also the new releases. if you want to hear a tune, just type in the name in youtube or google and you can hear or download the track.
Some years back this was not possible..if you wanted to hear a tune, you needed really to SEARCH and BUY the tune....or TRADE with like minded persons -> you needed to be down with the music.....so this was better for the artists and their sales.. and also for the freaks & dj's....as you was connected deeper with the music, as you needed to spend some time, money and heartsblood in your hobby/music....finding a tune, finding a artist info, finding more releases of a label...this was very hard, but possible and interessting...you're longer hungry if youre not sated that fast...
today you have a exess supply..if you want a tune, go to a mp3 blog or youtube..if you want a artist or label info...google, discogs ect. will tell you all...if you want info or contact to an artist...join facebook...so underground music lost a bit of its myteriousness...cause its too tangible for everyone.

so you have a huge lot of info about the music today, but no Main Info, no Guidline, what electro really is...all websites/blogs are mp3 related, EE is only a Forum...
So i think its the Task of electro empire, to bring the Info/Online site back..with some infos about the music, the old school and history, interviews and at least a music section with the most important 80's 90's and 00's releases with rating system and also a old school and new school top 100...so new freaks will have really a "home of electro funk" and dont need to get lost in the info jumble of google, discogs ect..

doctorcrack;59556 wrote:

i 100% agree with that. hard to pick out some good tunes in that lot of garbage.
a lot of the new stuff i heard is not unique and the quality of the tunes not good....maybe because its too easy to release a tune today...

its not like in the 90's or early 00's...it's hard to find a tune today like Aux 88-Electro Techno or A1 People-Do It or Newcleus-Destination Earth (Sbassship remix)...tunes you dont hear for 5 or 6 years, but if you hear them again, you exactly know witch artist and Track Title....but if you listen to some of these new digital releases..if you ask me 1 week later i dont remember a artist name or track title, as a lot of this stuff just dont have something special.
its still the vinyl releases and the quality tunes who keeps this music alive imo..like electro soul satisfaction, global sourveyor, CBR Underground electro...good music on black gold with a nice label or cover design.

i will add a few points:
today its very easy to get all the songs...the classics (even the rare ones) and also the new releases. if you want to hear a tune, just type in the name in youtube or google and you can hear or download the track.
Some years back this was not possible..if you wanted to hear a tune, you needed really to SEARCH and BUY the tune....or TRADE with like minded persons -> you needed to be down with the music.....so this was better for the artists and their sales.. and also for the freaks & dj's....as you was connected deeper with the music, as you needed to spend some time, money and heartsblood in your hobby/music....finding a tune, finding a artist info, finding more releases of a label...this was very hard, but possible and interessting...you're longer hungry if youre not sated that fast...
today you have a exess supply..if you want a tune, go to a mp3 blog or youtube..if you want a artist or label info...google, discogs ect. will tell you all...if you want info or contact to an artist...join facebook...so underground music lost a bit of its myteriousness...cause its too tangible for everyone.

And how about the following artists? (in no particular order and only those who come to mind right now)

Have you ever heard of them? If you have, do you really think that "the quality of their tunes isn't good"? Do you really think that "a lot of this stuff just don't have something special"? Just because their releases are (mostly) digital?
Is it so hard for you people to understand that today's tunes are the classics of tomorrow? That in a few years you'll be writing here or at another forum exactly the same nostalgic texts but instead of Newclews or Aux 88 you'll be mentioning a R21 or a Diamondback tune??
Plus: in the 80s or/and the 90s there was no "garbage'"? Eeeh?? I'm 41 years old, probably one of the oldest people who frequent this site and 30 years into hip-hop/electro and i can make you an endless list of 80s, 90s and 00s CRAP!

Oh and another thing: instead of begging a A&R prick to publish his (not so easy as you think made) work, a talented but poor kid finds his way to a net label, 99,9% run by people who care about music and LOVE music, and, without licking asses or pay money, sees his tunes published, available to everyone to listen, enjoy and become a fan. Or, even better, he sets up his own label! For me that's democracy

Have you ever heard of them? If you have, do you really think that "the quality of their tunes isn't good"? Do you really think that "a lot of this stuff just don't have something special"? Just because their releases are (mostly) digital?
Is it so hard for you people to understand that today's tunes are the classics of tomorrow? That in a few years you'll be writing here or at another forum exactly the same nostalgic texts but instead of Newclews or Aux 88 you'll be mentioning a R21 or a Diamondback tune??
Plus: in the 80s or/and the 90s there was no "garbage'"? Eeeh?? I'm 41 years old, probably one of the oldest people who frequent this site and 30 years into hip-hop/electro and i can make you an endless list of 80s, 90s and 00s CRAP!

i do know the most of these artists. im especially a fan of Xed, N-ter and the croatian electro.
im also a huge fan of the blastromen. the human beyond album is a classic...or the invisible rockers..or all that electro from spain...great....and much more...this stuff is unique, has style and a recognition value...about this stuff we also will speak in 10 years. but a lot stuff of some artists is crap, alot sounds just like the same... like diplomat said, its hard to pick out the quality ones due the quantity of the releases. youre right, crap was ever released, also in the 80's and 90's..but thats also a matter of taste and i think today we have more crap released than in the 80's or 90's or early 00's...quantity is a bit higher, quality a bit lower today..thats my oppinion

dv;59104 wrote:

i think that we are in a good electro years!!
we have more releases as we had time ago, there are new artists every day, new releases!!
there are no so much partys but the important is the music and we have lots of new tracks every month!
we ahve lots of radios shows full of greatest electro music!!
in my case in spain we are living in a gold era!! we are lots of arist releasing, new collaborations, new labels, we have a forum CS where to meet and talk about electro and we do some partys where people from all the country travel to see and meet with electro freaks!
so for me is the best electro moment that i saw it!!!
so in spain now we are not alone!!!!

This is the best open-mind post of all thread.

Ivan is one of the heads to follow. He pushed all of us in the best way possible, that's why in Spain we have a nice scene around electro.

Maybe this is a bit offtopic, but while all of you guys are seeing just darkholes, all spaniards can only find hopeness.. and this is where DV comes...

Erick Steele;59565 wrote:

Maybe this is a bit offtopic, but while all of you guys are seeing just darkholes, all spaniards can only find hopeness..

right!

I think electro has the best time since years. and it will be better in the next years. but its possible that electro turns in a wrong way. in the last 3-5 years electro moved from nowhere to a discussion about the future of this music! maybe in 2-3 years we will talking about the good old times, when electro was not a trend.

we have to watch ourselves! this music is so special because its not about money! its about the love to the music. that makes us happy and give us the feeling what we all have about this music. In spain you can feel it in the air. everyone gives respect to everyone. everyone is welcome. they are all brother and sisters because they trust in electro.
we have to spread that feeling out to the world and the scene will grow.

we have to move forward what we do, and get more self-confidence in electro. it is a small sub-genre but this music is powerful. and everybody who hear this music recognize it.

and about vinyl/digital? can someone tell me where is the music cassette??? i bought for some years tons of it because it was the future. and now a big bad magnet had deleted all the music!!! aaAAAHHHhh
just kidding...
release digital stuff, press vinyl. whatever, but make sure its good music.
...and in 10 years we will see, what was the better way to save our sound. will be there still the copies of 001011001.mp3 on the HDD or can you find the vinyl from 2011 in your collection. provided that we still using HDD at this days. we dont know.
but today! be happy with all the new electro stuff on vinyl and as digital-format. support electro and buy the music!

albotron;59571 wrote:

right!

I think electro has the best time since years. and it will be better in the next years. but its possible that electro turns in a wrong way. in the last 3-5 years electro moved from nowhere to a discussion about the future of this music! maybe in 2-3 years we will talking about the good old times, when electro was not a trend.

Hmm... i remember this sort of discussion happening regularly since at least
the last 10 years. And the discussed problems always stay the same. Music piracy, lack
of quality (even when pressing vinyls was more common), not enough club activity... etc.

As far as it seems to me, all in all the Electro scene hasn't really changed that much
over the last 10 years in terms of activity and releases.

Electro Empire's rise from the ashes and its traffic development since December 2008
should not be taken as an indicator for the development of the scene as a whole.
Prior to that things simply happened elsewhere in the net.

I agree with what was said about trends and hypes...
to create hypes/trends that reach outsiders it needs (real) big players from outside
who have the powers via existing well connected networks to easily push things.
But i think that usually only happens with things that are fresh and sexy and
therefor "worthy" to be pushed in the eyes of those people and the connected media.

Don't get me wrong, i love Electro and electronic music in all of its forms, past,
present and future. But let's face it, in terms of stylistic progression, New Electro is pretty
much stuck in the late 90s. All of the "New School Electro" styles we have now were
already around back then. And it all already reached its maximum media hype momentum
back then. Thats why the trendy people of today (at least the ones i heard over here
in Germany) call the "New Electro" "Oldschool Electro" now...

So I think without a big breeze of fresh air ...a new style / movement emerging within the
parameters of "Electro", i don't see much chances for things to become much "bigger" again.
At least not by the help from outside.

I mean who would see any potential in classic House or classic Techno as we know it
to become a new hyped trend again now? It will always have its fans but its nothing new...
why would anyone besides enthusiasts want to push it as the next big thing.

Anyway, Electro survived for so long only because of lots of people keeping up the love for it.
It should be able to carry on for a long time and maybe even grow a little from the inside
if we combine forces...

This is just speculation but I think that the more popular the music genre is the more likely the music wouldn't be as great as if the genre was less popular because the music producers would have less time in the studio to come up with something special compared to being on the road performing gigs. So if you're spend more time on the road performing gigs than you are in the studio working on producing music then your music quality production is gonna hurt alittle.

I could be wrong on this but this could be a reason why popularity isn't what its all cracked up to be.

I think, if you can earn your living by making music, you'll just be able to spend 100% or your working time on music, no matter if it is in the studio or doing gigs. This gives you a big advantage over hobby folks like me....

Have you ever heard of them? If you have, do you really think that "the quality of their tunes isn't good"? Do you really think that "a lot of this stuff just don't have something special"? Just because their releases are (mostly) digital?
Is it so hard for you people to understand that today's tunes are the classics of tomorrow? That in a few years you'll be writing here or at another forum exactly the same nostalgic texts but instead of Newclews or Aux 88 you'll be mentioning a R21 or a Diamondback tune??
Plus: in the 80s or/and the 90s there was no "garbage'"? Eeeh?? I'm 41 years old, probably one of the oldest people who frequent this site and 30 years into hip-hop/electro and i can make you an endless list of 80s, 90s and 00s CRAP!

Oh and another thing: instead of begging a A&R prick to publish his (not so easy as you think made) work, a talented but poor kid finds his way to a net label, 99,9% run by people who care about music and LOVE music, and, without licking asses or pay money, sees his tunes published, available to everyone to listen, enjoy and become a fan. Or, even better, he sets up his own label! For me that's democracy

Thanks E the fact that you would include me n the list of great artists is an honor!!!

Every one has made great points. I believe if we want to progress we have to get new fans open some new minds up. Push electro to people who arent familiar and open there minds to what real great, pure music this is. It's the most genuine, expressive and creative music Ive ever heard and it deserves to be shown some light. There is a huge saturation of artist and releases but like my buddy r21 told me once the creme always rises to the top. So lets push our scene let's be proud and try to make new fans.

Its never going to be the same as it was. You used to get your breakdancing, bodypoppin' and graffiti which added to the effect which is not fresh anymore. I personally think that some of the new stuff is far more interesting, particularly the darker sounding tracks. I still think its got a lot to offer in the future, this music is all about the future so it will never die.